We talk about change often. Whether it’s losing weight or voicing dissatisfaction with our job. Complaining about a friend or co-worker, emotionally wishing they would change. Our significant other’s habits annoy us and wanting them to change. Or trapped in our seemingly boring life, social media gives us views “out of our window” cultivating a restlessness in our hearts for something different.
Change always feels drastic. Threatening. Distant. And amidst all of these feelings, change also feels romantic and exciting. This tension freezes us into indecision and lack of action. Leaving us frozen in time as the weeks and months pass.
Improvement on the other hand is something never talked about. It seems foreign to us. But well within our reach. It lacks the romance that change promises. Nor is it drastic or threatening. It simply requires our attention to something we would like to do just a bit better today than before.
This foreign world of improvement simply asks that we forget about what the “end” might look like. Allowing us to simply focus on some small, simple thing we can do a bit better today. Our daily routines are filled with possibilities for improvements.
There is leverage in focusing on improvements instead of change. They more easily compound over time and become embedded in who we are (because they are never threatening) with time. Improvements need only be small yet intentional for this to happen.
Moving inches instead of lunging at miles gives us the best chance for success. For what we easily forget is that most things take many steps to get there. Focusing on daily small improvements will always get us to new places much faster.